FIG. 1 depicts a portion of a conventional energy assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) transducer 10. The conventional EAMR transducer 10 is used in writing a recording media (not shown in FIG. 1) and receives light, or energy, from a conventional laser (not shown in FIG. 1). The conventional EAMR transducer 10 includes gratings 32A and 32B, a conventional waveguide 12, conventional pole 30, and near-field transducer (NFT) 40. The conventional EAMR transducer 10 is shown with a laser spot 14 that is guided by the conventional waveguide 12 to a smaller spot 16 near the air-bearing surface (ABS). The light at the smaller spot 16 is focused by the NFT 40 to magnetic recording media (not shown), such as a disk. Other components that may be part of the conventional EAMR transducer 10 are not shown.
In operation, light from the spot 14 is coupled to the conventional EAMR transducer 10 using the gratings 32A and 32B. The waveguide 12, which is shown as a planar solid immersion mirror, directs light from the gratings 32A and 32B to the spot 16. In other conventional EAMR transducers, the conventional wave guides could take other forms, such as tapered waveguide that directs light toward the spot 16. The direction of travel of the light as directed by the conventional waveguide 12 can be seen by the arrows 18 and 20. A small region of the conventional media is heated by the spot 16. The conventional EAMR transducer 10 magnetically writes data to the heated region of the recording media by energizing the conventional pole 30.
Although the conventional EAMR transducer 10 may function, there are drawbacks. Design of the conventional EAMR transducer 1—seeks to balance various considerations. The NFT 16 and the pole 30 are to be separated by a particular distance. During use of the conventional EAMR transducer 10, thermal protrusion may affect the spacing between and efficacy of components in the EAMR transducer 10. This thermal protrusion may be desired to be accounted for. Further, the waveguide 12 is desired to have a high efficiency to adequately couple light from the laser (not shown in FIG. 1) to the conventional NFT 16. Often, these are competing considerations. Consequently, design of an EAMR transducer is desired to balance these competing considerations. The conventional EAMR transducer 10 may not appropriately account for these factors. More specifically, the pole 30, NFT 16, and waveguide 12 may not provide the desired combination of optical energy and magnetic field to the media. Consequently, performance of the conventional EAMR transducer may suffer.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving performance of an EAMR transducer.